


Don't Mess with Mr. "Hmph"

by Teal_Rainbeau



Series: The Village It Takes [7]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ava makes a new friend, Basically it's all Lance's fault for this entire storyline, Cute Kids, Father-Daughter Relationship, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Keith & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Keith (Voltron) is a Dork, Lance (Voltron) is a Dork, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Lance steps on a sandcastle, Pidge | Katie Holt is So Done, Protective Ryan Kinkade, Proud Papa Hunk, Single Parent Lance (Voltron), Single Parent Ryan Kinkade (Voltron), Stressed Lance (Voltron), Volunteer Keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:48:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25458799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teal_Rainbeau/pseuds/Teal_Rainbeau
Summary: Ava startles Lance.He smashes a castle of sand.A little girl criesJust like someone diedLance is lucky to not catch those hands...
Relationships: Hunk & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Lance (Voltron), Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Lance (Voltron) & Original Child Character(s), Ryan Kinkade & Lance
Series: The Village It Takes [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1535177
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	Don't Mess with Mr. "Hmph"

**Author's Note:**

> I've been planning on how to put Kinkade and his daughter in the series for a while. I knew he was going to be a single father like Lance, but now that I've gotten his backstory figured out, it's on. :D He and Lance _at the very least_ will be really great friends...

A healthy chime of childlike giggles rang around the playground as Ava continued to duck and cover away from Lance’s grasp. It was just like chasing a baby duckling and thank God he was still in shape enough to frolic with her.

“Can’t dodge me forever, kiddo!”

After the jogging wonder disappeared from his immediate view, he took a moment to chill out for a bit. His daughter was great at teleportation, a ninja after his own heart.

“ _Ava_ …Come out, come out wherever you are…” He marched with a playfulness to his sway.

He smiled at his daughter’s cleverness. If he were a girl that was “yay high” to his hip, where would he hide?

He looked down a few feet from him to find a child with puffy pigtails and dragon wings attached to her back constructing a sandcastle. A heartbeat of a more frenzied kind began thumping harshly in his chest. He saw blond kids, curly haired kids, braids: no shoulder-length auburn waves to be seen. Maybe she was hiding in one of the tube slides or something. This was no time to switch up the chase with hide and seek! She _really_ should have given him a warning or something.

“Ava?” he called, trying to swallow the new anxiety incubating in his throat.

And as if he weren’t crazy enough, a strain of a gasp escape him as Ava gripped him with a lively _Abracadabra!_ He stumbled as his left foot involuntarily smashed into the sandcastle right in front of him. This time he took in his grave mistake with a more deep-seated wheeze, and it was a good thing that the child architect was missing in action.

“Uh oh!” Ava’s now-deflated voiced murmured.

Before the girl could muster a honey-induced apology, Lance was already on his knees trying to use total recall to reconstruct every dimension that made up the ruined monument. He ordered Ava to quickly fill up the pail with water and come right back.

“But you said not to touch other kid’s stuff…”

“Yeah, I know. But remember when we _also_ talked about emergencies?”

The child rocked her head after returning from a confused frown.

“Now go!”

With a light tap to her back he sent the girl sprinting to the drinking fountain. After the first drag of sand, his stomach dropped at the sound of a whisper-induced wail. The child from earlier magically appeared in front of him, finger pointing accusingly at Lance as tears melted from her hazel eyes and settled on her cheeks and rectangular-shaped mouth. Powerful hiccups came tumbling out in intervals. 

“I got the water, Papí!” Ava was speed-walking as water splashed on the sand. But a taller, slightly larger man than Lance beat Ava to her destination and swooped the distressed child from Lance’s sight.

“He messed up my sand-castle!!!” the child followed with a loud belt of pain.

Lance held up his sandy hands in surrender, “Look, man, my daughter and I were trying to fix it. I accidently…”

But the other man had the child in his arms, soothing them with a back rub before flashing Lance the most terror-inducing bodyguard stare-down with a grunt before walking away. It dried his mouth shut.

Meanwhile, Ava was still pouring the water in the sand to mix. “Was he mad, Papí?”

“Uh…noooo…”

“Are you sure?” She tilted her head.

All he knew _for sure_ was that the encounter nearly made him create a nice moat to go with that sandcastle…

\\\\\\\\\\\\\

The moment they arrived at the ice cream shop, Lance froze at the sound of synchronized cries crescendoing nearby.

“What’s he doing back here so soon? Doesn’t he believe in paternity leave?”

Pidge scraped some fruit sorbet with a scoop and made the largest ball of raspberry she could with it. “He’s only here via Facechat. Shay’s come down with the flu or something. 

“Whoa, that’s a bummer. Sounds like he has his work cut out for him.” Lance eyed the sight of his sleep-deprived friend with the two bundles in his arms. Baby Cami was cooing peacefully while Ken appeared to be drifting off. Tired Papa’s upturned mouth drooped downward, eyes blinking from obvious lack of sleep. His previous stubble had flourished into a full-grown shallow beard.

“ _Watch out_! Might see you with triplets in another nine months if you keep _that_ appearance up.” Lance teased with a rub of his chin as he asked Pidge for a spoon of crushed pineapple for his unfinished sundae.

“Please don’t let Shay hear you say that. She’s already begging me not to shave it off.”

And that was one of the reasons Pidge moved in with Matt; to leave the new parents alone to nest. She couldn’t complain after realizing that Matt might have needed extra adult supervision with his hands full at work and his budding relationship with Romelle.

“Hey, sweethearts, you being nice to your papa?” Lance cooed

“Looks like Ken’s finally knocked out.” Pidge mooned with a whisper.

“I think I’m gonna leave the shop in your faithful hands for a week longer, if you’re okay with that. Shay still has to feed them even though she has a virus that they're somehow immune to…” He gently tilted Cami’s mouth away from his shirt, “No, sweetheart! _Mine_ weren’t designed for sustenance!”

Lance laughed and wished him luck before he disconnected. He commented to Pidge on how those babies were probably gonna be his height by the time they entered high school, given that their mother was also five foot eleven…

Pidge gave him his sundae and urged him to keep his money, which he put half of in their lucky anime cat tip jar.

“You know hurricane season is coming up. Take what you can get.”

“You do have a point.”

Ava interrupted them, nearly climbing on the counter to point to the three-scooped sundae. “Excuse me, Aunt Pidge, you forgot the blueberries.”

“Coming right up, sweetie.”

Lance playfully stuffed away the other five-dollar bill, “On second thought, I nearly gave you a hefty tip for bad service.”

Pidge stuck her tongue out and corrected her mistake, inviting the two to enjoy as they went to their favorite booth next to the counter. While Ava dug in with her chubby cheeks puffed in bliss, Lance returned to the topic of the marvel that was Hunk’s beard. He felt bittersweet that his friend of nearly twenty years was looking like a full-grown manly man, no longer that baby-faced preteen who went to school with him. Pidge thought that he should keep it as long as it didn’t start looking unruly.

“Who’s growing a beard?” A voice asked from the shop door.

“You are.” Lance joked to a deadpanning Keith, who came in wearing jeans with his dark violet work T-shirt. He came in for his hour-long lunch break from Marmora’s Nonprofit Center where he worked.

“Papí, Uncle Keith doesn’t have a beard!” Ava drawled with a giggle as she brought another spoon of sorbet to her mouth.

“Your papí likes making fun of me. You think that’s very nice?” Keith took a seat on the other side of Lance with the girl sitting in the middle. She shook her head until looking back at her father with a submissive squint.

“Your uncle knows I’m just playing with him, just like I play with everybody else.”

All Keith did was grunt and look at the paper menu next to him and Lance swore he got déjà vu from his earlier incident on the playground. He told Keith and everyone about his unfortunate event on the playground with the young child whose sandcastle he completely pulverized with his foot, and how her father came in like a stoic eagle to take the girl away.

“Keith sounded just like “Mr. Hmph”. Dude didn’t even cuss me out or whisper a threat in my ear…”

“You’re lucky. Hunk would’ve probably chased you off the playground and into the ocean if those were his kids.” Pidge said nonchalantly while leaning on the counter near the trio.

“Oh, angry Hunk is scary Hunk, that we’ve established…”

Lance took one sideways glance at the door’s bell and dropped under the table to escape the eyes of his brain’s guest star. All it took was one look at stubble neatly cropped against smooth dark brown skin with short dreads sprouted on top of an undercut.

“What the?” Keith frowned at Lance’s antic.

_“That’s_ him!” Lance meeped before going silent again.

“Papí?”

He scrunched his eyes at Ava and pressed his finger to his sealed lips. “Shhh! Papí’s pretending to be a ghost!”

“Can I be one, too?”

Lance quickly motioned for her to come on down, where she leaned against him.

Keith stood up and locked hands with the guy, patting him on the shoulder as if they were old friends. He warmly greeted the little girl who was smiling now, long removed from the distressed child on the playground.

“How’s life lately?”

“Weird. Jojo’s been having a rough day. Some nut destroyed her sandcastle…”

“I’m really sorry to hear that. How’d you handle that?”

“Just wanted to get her out of there. That guy was really lucky…”

“I bet. I would’ve given him a playground knuckle sandwich and made him eat every bite…”

Lance listened to Keith wince in pain as he roughly pinched his calf. His voice was now a slight octave higher, “Or maybe things weren’t as they appeared. Did he seem hostile?”

“He tried to apologize…I’ll probably see him again. Here’s hoping we’ll sit down and talk it over.”

Pidge called the man for his order pick-up. After a few minutes the sound of the door jingled once the man finally left. Pidge and Keith erupted into snickers.

“The coast is clear!” Pidge tittered.

Lance finally popped up, and not a moment too soon because he was starting to break out into a sweat under that table. Nothing a cool spoon of raspberry sorbet couldn’t solve…”

“You’re eating my sundae? Why don’t you get your own?” Lance snatched his spoon from Keith and dug into a half-eaten scoop brutally before finally tasting it.

Keith frowned playfully, his mouth tipped in a crooked grin, “Hey Pidge? Might wanna get a medium in here…something just moved this bowl and yanked my spoon away!”

“Uncle Keith, we’re not ghosts anymore! Can’t you see us?” Ava wailed.

“I could’ve sworn I heard a child’s voice…like I said, Pidge…” Keith leaned against his fist in false oblivion.

Ava continued to wave her hands until nearly collapsing in Keith’s chest, bellowing and begging for her uncle to see her again.”

Lance gave him a silent “cut” gesture with his hand, teeth and eyes narrowed. Keith got the message as his smile transitioned to something warmer, “ _There_ you are!”

“Uncle Keith, you can see me!”

He rubbed the child’s back in the midst of her sobbing until she calmed down, “Missed you. Did you and your papí have fun being ghosts?”

“I’ll never ever be a ghost ever again!” she hiccupped. “Papí, that was a bad idea!”

“I…” Lance's eyes found his lap as a pout joined them.

Pidge set down a special kid’s scoop for consoling Ava, topped with a berry-shaped smiley face. “Great. Hunk’s got Ken and Cami and I get these two idiots. You two _really_ should set a better example for little Ava!”

//////

“Push me harder!”

But any harder and gravity might be an enemy to his credibility as a dad. “You wanna go to da moon, Alice?”

“Papí, my name’s _Ava_!”

Right. Kids her age would not understand pop culture references from his grandparent’s era.

Feet away was Mr. Kinkade settling into a spot in the sand with his little girl at work with another masterpiece. His hands busied with a wet clump of sand as she made a hole with her shovel.

Lance lifted Ava from the swing and set her down, provoking a confused pout from her. “Come on, mama.”

If it weren’t for the sea breeze caressing his cheeks, he would have been all too aware of the anxiety thermostat rising in his chest. But enough was enough. It was time they spoke to each other face to face, like adults. Their daughters needed to see what being civil actually looked like.

He cleared his throat and managed a friendly wave with a mild grin. “Hi, remember me? I’m Mr. McClain and this is my daughter, Ava.”

The man scooted over to make room for Lance to sit. His facial expression was much more relaxed than yesterday, and Lance could’ve sworn the anxiety thumping in his own neck had finally taken a hike.

The man smiled, “It’s nice to meet you Ava. How old are you?”

“Five.” She held up that many fingers.

“That’s how old Josephine is.” He encouraged the girl to say hi to the pair.

Today the girl wore a cartoonish cat beanie along with black leggings and matching T-shirt that said “I’m a cat” with a minimalist Hello Kitty-like motif. She clung timidly to her father’s side. He rubbed his daughter’s back while Lance began to apologize.

“Sweetheart, I’m really sorry for what I did yesterday. Lost my balance and tried not to fall, so I stepped on it by mistake. Can you forgive me?”

“What’s forgive?” She asked her father.

“It’s means do you accept his apology?”

She shook her head while looking at him, but he coaxed her into looking at Lance to tell him.

“Yeah.”

“Yeah what?” Mr. Kinkade nudged gently.

“I accept your ‘pology.”

“Alright! You hear that, Ava? She accepts!” Ava laughed as Lance grabbed her arms and started dancing wildly with them. Jojo let out a laugh as well.

“Daddy, can me and Ava go play?”

“Yeah. Yeah you can go play until I call you.”

“Thank you!”

Jojo hugged him and grabbed Ava’s hand. They chattered about where they would find “treasure” before disappearing into the mosaic that was the playground.

Now that the girls were in general child population, Mr. Kinkade looked at Lance and muttered an apology, hands rolling wet sand into a ball. Never mind both men finding themselves mindlessly finishing what Jojo started without a second thought to how overgrown they must’ve looked doing it.

“For what? Sending a clear message not to mess with baby bear?”

“I didn’t get the full story.” He clasped his hands into his lap. “All I cared about was getting her out of there.”

Lance held his palms up. “Been there, done that. No judgement.” He made a wet mound for a house, silence hanging awkwardly “…so how do you know Keith?"

“Dropped a big Santa-sized bag of stuff at Marmora one day. Made him happy.”

“Did his smile spook you?” Lance asked with a playful raise of an eyebrow.

Kinkade bit back a snicker and shook his head. He then checked his phone and sighed through his nose. “I’m sorry. I have an appointment in an hour.”

Lance shook himself by the shoulders mentally. Why had he been so afraid of this guy? Okay, he knew _exactly_ why he was afraid of this guy who was about six foot five but no more harmful than a teddy bear.

“Mr. Kinkade.”

“Please call me Ryan.” He said with a curve to the corner of his mouth.

“The name’s Lance!”

They exchanged handshakes and numbers, _properly_ this time, and Lance felt giddiness strumming away the craziness in his sternum. It was probably time for he and Ava to head home so she could take a nap or something…

“Ava!” Lance hollered. “Let’s go home, sweet pea!”

“Jojo!” Ryan called.

No tanned girl with auburn hair. Nor a darker earth-toned girl with pigtails springing from a cartoony-shaped cap with ears. As they called their daughters again with no answer, Lance glanced at Ryan at the same time his dark hazel eyes met his. They both sighed, their shoulders and jaws stiffening.

“I _really_ am not one to yell.” Ryan uttered.

“Allow me.” Lance knew once he called his own daughter, that naturally her new friend would follow. “Ava Lucinda, ¡ _ya_ _tienes hasta el cinco_!” (you have five seconds!)

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, and please leave kudos/comments if you enjoyed ♡


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